Nigeria Content Online

President Goodluck Jonathan has inaugurated the governing council of the Nigerian Content Development Board, with a charge to reposition the petroleum sector for the benefit of the nation.

The president had in April this year signed into law the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development Act, which provides for the development and use of Nigerian content in the operations and transactions of the oil and gas industry. He explained that the NOGICD Act, which he signed into law on April 22, 2010, created the NCDMB with a professional governing council and this can propel Nigeria into becoming one of the world’s industrialised economies in the next decade.

Shortly before inaugurating the board at the council chambers of the presidential villa, Mr. Jonathan said the country is aware of the limitations of capacity in manufacturing for the upstream and downstream operation, unlike in other economies where the application of local content has stimulated investments that transformed their economies, hence the enactment of Nigeria’s own local content law.

“We must drive the implementation of this law in a manner that develops partnerships between local and international companies and government and the private sectors of the economy, including local banks, global financing institutions, manufacturing, agriculture, and educational and research institutions should be exhaustively explored,” the president said to the governing council.

He further urged them to enhance the supply chain management and efficiently integrate such government programmes as SME development PTDF, Industrial Training Fund, and the National Office for Technology Acquisition and Promotion (NOTAP) initiatives to build local capacities. This, he noted, “will serve as a vehicle for transferring the technological experience inherent in the oil and gas industry to other critical sectors”.

While government is working at building these synergies, “Nigerians must step up to take up the challenge of participation,” he said.

“We must embrace a new ‘I can do’ spirit in pursuit of the high quality and global standards of performance required in the oil and gas industry. We have to reenact the same level of commitment that has seen our telecom and banking sector reforms noteworthy successes.”

Inaugurating the council, he charged them to make all these aspirations of government a reality.

“As the pioneering governing council of and implementation authority for this law, you have the opportunity of repositioning the industry for the benefit of our country. You cannot afford to fail in this important national assignment”, he told them.

In her speech, the petroleum resources minister , Mrs. Alison-Madueke, noted that effective implementation of the Act will ensure that the Nigerian economy will, within the next four years, retain over $10 billion out of an average annual oil & gas industry expenditure of $20 billion, compared to the current sum of less than $4 billion. She added that “successful implementation of the Act will create over 30,000 direct employment and training opportunities, considering the scale of activities to be domiciled in Nigeria.”

She also expressed hope that the industry will witness the development of one or two dockyards and increased utilisation of existing shipyards for maintaining marine vessels operating in Nigeria, which currently sails out for their maintenance and dry docking. According to her, there will also be the “transformation of ownership profile of marine assets supporting industry activity from a current ratio of 20 Nigerian-owned, as against 280 foreign-owned vessels to a more equitable ratio of 180:120.”

The governing council has a four-year tenure and is chaired by the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke. Other members are Mr. Shawley Coker, representing Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, Mr. Emmanuel Bekee, representing the technical regulator of the industry, and Mr. J.T. Dawha, representing Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

Others are Mr. A.O Ajibola, representing Council of Registered Engineers of Nigeria, Mr. Mike Onyekonwu, representing Nigerian Content Consultative Forum, Mr. Sani Shuaibu, representing the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Fola Daniel, representing National Insurance Commission, and Mr. Ernest Nwapa, the executive secretary of NCDMB and secretary of the governing council.